Alaska 2022

We returned to Alaska, 30 years after my parents took their family and 3 years after we took ours (2019). We stayed at the same lodge near Homer — Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge which highlights how wonderful it is.

So wonderful that we have reserved for 2024.

We flew to Anchorage, spent the night, flew to Homer where we spent the weekend.




A Google Earth view of Homer, the spit, Kachemak Bay and China Poot Bay where the lodge is located.



Then on to the Lodge.


Green is vegetation and the gray is sandbars which appear at low tide and disappear at high tide. Boaters have to always be aware of the tides.

Diane and Michael McBride built the lodge and their kids, Shannon McBride-Morin and Morgan McBride, now own and run it. Last time we saw Diane and this time Mike came by.

What makes the entire experience is the staff. Mostly/entirely young and mostly from the Homer area, they really know, love and enjoy sharing the Alaskan wilderness. They each do it all - guiding, cleaning, serving meals, ensuring guest safety, etc.

Perhaps the best way to convey this is through a photo. One guest was having real issues with her back but the staff found a way for her to enjoy tide pooling!


The schedule is Monday - Saturday so we spent the middle weekend back in Homer.

What did we do?
It's great that there's never a rush and we always stopped for anything interesting.

• Our perhaps most favorite activity is tide pooling; in fact, we chose the dates to get the lowest low tide of the season at -5.2 feet; high tide that day was 21.6 feet for a total swing of 26.8 feet! On a memorable outing incoming tide was slightly misunderestimated and we required a boat rescue when we became stranded.
  
• Hiking, which generally means taking a boat ride to hike a nearby old growth forest or a river valley or a ridge.
  
• Kayaking; once for 4 miles out into Kachemak Bay and then up Peterson Bay to the end where we had to portage back to China Poot Bay where we were picked up by boat for a ride back to the lodge. A second voyage was up to the end of China Poot Bay; on the return the wind came up so we radioed for a boat pick up!
• Canoeing in their 14 paddler canoe up China Poot Creek where the salmon were running. Watched guests who fished working to snag a salmon (just what it sounds; it's the season for it); one was snagged and hors d'oeuvres on the deck were particularly good that night.
  

On to the photos!
(Note that I actually just hand code raw html and that Safari sometimes does not display the index pages correctly nor start the videos. Videos are lower resolution which hurts but it does shorten load times.)